The problem with a smart child at Christmas

My son (aged 8) had a breakdown tonight because he wants to believe in Santa Clause, but finds it too hard to do in face of the facts.  He says he wishes he was a 'dumb redneck' that would have no problem believing in Santa.  He was actually in tears about it.  It's hard being a skeptic, especially at age 8. 

As a parent, I felt that the charade had gone on long enough; however, my wife wasn't ready to give up on it.  We both tried the approach that Santa Claus is more of an idea than an actual person, and by believing in the idea, people 'become Santa'.  However, that might be a little abstract for an eight-year-old.  But this is no ordinary eight-year-old.

Family Milestone and Subsequent Inspiration

My seven-year-old son learned to ride a bike today.  He never used training wheels, and suffered through several days of seemingly zero progress.  Then today, after so much frustration, blood, sweat, and tears, he started pedaling and kept going.

His conquest is my inspiration.  If he can conquer riding a bike even though he thought he never would, I can finish this current project I'm working on.

Link love for the LHC

I know this has been posted everywhere, but I too want to share some link love for the photo spread at Boston.com for CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The sheer scope and magnitude of this project is awesome in either sense of the term.  As you scroll through the photos, think of all those humongous, yet intricate pieces as integral parts of a gigantic system.  

At this point, you might be thinking about the fact that (in the software world at least) the 'interconnects' between pieces of a system are likely points of failure.  And if you deal with software systems in any way, you know they have bugs.  This is where many slide down the slope to the idea that the LHC is going to kill us all by generating a black hole, kind of like the 'Big Accident' in Dan Simmons' Hyperion series.

When it comes to science, I tend to have a more optimistic approach than I do with, say, politics, religion, women, etc.  For example, the mars rovers, which are still running four years after their ninety day mission.  Or as they put it, the rovers are still functioning over 1500 sols past their warranty.  Those systems were designed by some very smart people who planned for getting around everything that could go wrong while assuming everything will go wrong.  But if you think about it, that's not a bad way to approach designing a mission-critical system.